


Heed, Our Hearts, To Reap the Best

by dixiehellcat



Series: Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [17]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Body Modification, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Gen, Iron Family, Juice Pops As A Metaphor For Life, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Prosthetics, Tony Stark Lives, idk them, the Russos whomst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29625228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixiehellcat/pseuds/dixiehellcat
Summary: Tony thinks about how his life after the snaps has changed, for worse and for better.Fills the "popsicles" square on my Round 4 Tony Stark Bingo card number 4028. (required info collected below)
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009245
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	Heed, Our Hearts, To Reap the Best

**Author's Note:**

> Bingo specifics--  
> Title: Heed, Our Hearts, To Reap the Best  
> Author: deehellcat  
> Card Number: 4028  
> Link (AO3, Tumblr, etc.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/29625228  
> Square Filled (Letter AND number AND prompt) R3, popsicles  
> Ship/Main Pairing: Tony and Morgan  
> Rating (Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit) gen  
> Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: Canon Divergence—Avengers Endgame, Tony Stark Lives, Prosthetics, Body Modification, PTSD, Iron Family, Precious Morgan Stark, the Russos whomst, idk them, Juice Pops As A Metaphor For Life  
> Summary: Tony thinks about how his life after the snaps has changed, for worse and for better.  
> Word Count: 697

Sometimes it felt weirdly like grief, this recovery thing. People trained in the field told him that was not at all abnormal. He was Tony Stark, but he was also Iron Man for so damn long, and now—he wasn’t, he couldn’t be, anymore. So, yeah, there was some loss. It was like Iron Man, his other self, in some ways his closest friend, had died, and he was left to carry on. Carrying on, for now, looked a lot like holing up, hiding away, and a part of him hated it, but a part of him was halfway afraid to come out, no matter how Pepper gently coaxed him to not be a hermit. 

Starks weren’t famous for how well they handle their feelings, of course, quite the contrary. He didn’t handle his parents’ deaths well, when it happened, or decades later when he learned the truth about it. Even though the Avengers were less a team and more a jar of angry bees with a crack in the lid getting shaken on the regular, it had hurt when they all made it clear they were choosing Rogers (and Barnes, though once the shock wore off, Tony knew none of it was that poor sap’s fault) over him. That said, he had honestly cried more manly tears when he thought he’d lost Pep, and when Rhodey had been hurt.

The loss of half the universe (well, mostly of Parker, but the rest of that half too) had been almost too big to shove under the paltry umbrella called _grief_ , and the way he had dealt with it had been equally off the far end of the bell curve. Instead of hitting the sauce, or burying himself in work, he had turned completely away—got married, had a kid, took a shot at what passed for a normal life in a post-Thanos universe. 

Then came the final gasp, the last-second shot, that Tony had taken and wound up sidelined, for good this time, no take-backs. He sat on the porch of his house, and watched the sun’s light play across the lake; held up his arm, and watched it play too across the red and gold metal that was now a part of him. Wallowing in emotion wasn’t going to do him any good, he often railed at himself; but he couldn’t help but think of what his therapist had told him. _Tony, if this was someone else, someone who you cared deeply for, who was a vital part of your life, would you try to force them to move faster through their healing process? Don’t answer that, I think I already know. You are that person. Love yourself, and move at the pace you need, and be glad you can._

The being glad, that was hard, sometimes, too; except when the screen door banged behind him, and a tiny form crawled up into his lap and nestled her warmth against his metal arm without staring or whispering, with no hint of caring about it other than that it was attached to her daddy. “Whatcha thinking about?” Morgan asked.

“Stuff. Nothing in particular. You?”

“Juice pops.”

“Of course you are,” he laughed, locked the metal arm around her and lifted them both to stand and go raid the freezer. There was just one problem. “Uh-oh, your highness. The cupboard is bare. No juice pops!”

Tony had to laugh at the pout his daughter pulled, and wonder if he had learned this early to use that trick this well. “How can we get some more?” she asked.

He opened his mouth to say, _we’ll text your mom to pick some up on the way home_ ; but then he thought of something far better than piling one more errand onto Pepper’s strong but tired shoulders. “Why don’t you go get your jacket, and we’ll put Gerald in his stall, and then, we’ll make a run to the store and grab some.”

Morgan cheered and raced off. The patter of her little feet felt like the beating of his heart. He had lost some, yes, but fuck it all, what he had kept, what he had gained, was much more.

**Author's Note:**

> Title adapted from the poem Loss Or Gain by Soumita Sarkar Ray.
> 
> Stay tuned to see what goes down at the store...Grocery Shopping is another prompt on my bingo card. lol


End file.
